Philosophy
Mohammad Samiei
Abstract
Public understanding, an important subject that is less discussed in the available literature, is under scrutiny by the book entitled Science, Society, Development: Papers on Public Understanding from both Historical and Philosophical Perspectives. Using critical rationalism as its main analytical approach, ...
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Public understanding, an important subject that is less discussed in the available literature, is under scrutiny by the book entitled Science, Society, Development: Papers on Public Understanding from both Historical and Philosophical Perspectives. Using critical rationalism as its main analytical approach, the book attempts to make a correction on the notion of science in the public perspective and also about the definition and necessity of public understanding. Despite the success of critical rationalism in enlightening the public about science, this approach alone is unable in clarifying non-scientific motivations such as political and economic interests behind propagating science. To prevent this shortcoming, we could consider besides critical rationalism some other approaches which help us and the public detect non-scientific motivations and to distinguish between genuine attempts and those who look at science as a means. This paper also discusses some formative points and suggests four complementary additions to the book. Overall, the book is an in-depth and valuable attempt on this subject.
political science
Mohammad Ali Tavana
Abstract
Abdal-llah Belqiziz, a Moroccan philosopher in Arabic and Modernity: A Study of Modernist Discourse, poses the question of how he encountered Arab intellectual discourses (authentic, reformist, and liberal) with modernity and why these discourses have not succeeded in opening the way to Arab modernity? ...
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Abdal-llah Belqiziz, a Moroccan philosopher in Arabic and Modernity: A Study of Modernist Discourse, poses the question of how he encountered Arab intellectual discourses (authentic, reformist, and liberal) with modernity and why these discourses have not succeeded in opening the way to Arab modernity? According to Belqiziz, the main problem goes back to the theoretical framework of these discourses, which contains the following problems: 1. A mechanical definition of the relationship between oneself and another; 2- Linear view of history; 3- Incomplete understanding of modernity. In contrast to Belqiziz, the discourse of critical rationalism is the solution to these problems because of its reliance on the internal dialectic between self and the other, self and the other dialectical critique, nonlinear view of history (simultaneous intellectual history), cultural understanding of modernity, avoidance of absolutism, as well as the possibility of combining Western and Islamic. However, it seems that Belqiziz’s solution still has two fundamental problems: 1- The inevitability of modernity; 2- Lack of pure indigenous epistemological system and methodology for the transition to progress.
